Hello. Welcome to my home page. From here you can find out about World Literature as I teach it, you can learn a little bit about me, or you can use the links to Mrs. Merrill or the High School Home page.

I have been teaching English since 1970. My first year was at Camden-Frontier near Hillsdale where I was pink-slipped and spent my next year in radio at WBCH in Hastings, Michigan. After that year, I decided my gifts and passion lay in teaching, and I have taught at Hartland High School since 1972.

For the first twenty-eight years of my career I directed Drama, producing and directing forty-nine plays and musicals, forty-six of which were at Hartland. In 1997, I knew that I was losing the passion, and since my son was eleven at the time, I realized I had one chance to be his dad. After the spring show in 1998, I retired from that aspect of my career. While I miss the relationship I had with the kids, I find my relationship with my wife and kids is stronger for having made that decision.

My students generally appreciate some of the theatrics I bring to the classroom, although not all of them understand or quite know what to make of them. That's okay. I am a product of many years in drama, a love for reading and writing, a strong knowledge of literature and history, and a long-lasting passion for teaching. I have taught Lit. and Comp. 9, English 10, Current Reading, American Lit., British Lit., Journalism, Creative Writing, Composition, Debate, Forensics, Drama, Technical Theater, and for the last eight years--World Lit. As I tell my kids each fall: I know a little about a lot, and a lot about only a little.

The photo at the right shows my four siblings and me on Thumb Lake in northern Michigan.  We are all over 50 in this shot. I live in Howell. I enjoy reading, gardening, woodworking, bicycling and walking for exercise, water skiing and boating, and playing golf.  I am active in my church, Shalom Lutheran Church in Pinkney.